Viet Road Trip Day 11
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam. This is day 11. Day 10 can be found here.
ay 11 started out with some great weather. Even though the air was hazy and less than optimal for photography, the temperature was perfect.
There were a number of routes to choose from to leave Da Nang. I chose the route that took me over the Dragon Bridge, of course.
My last trip across the Dragon Bridge for a while. Here's another video of the "City side" of Da Nang, as I left.
Leaving town. Soon enough I would be over those mountains on the horizon.
I hit the mountains pretty quickly after leaving Da Nang. There's a reason why the guys from Top Gear went nuts when they rode this stretch of highway. It's absolutely stunning. The mountains are covered in jungle, and a gorgeous, island speckled coastline is almost always in view.
I'm willing to admit that there is a possibility that a road better than the Hai Van Pass exists. I just haven't heard of it. If God came to Earth to ride scooters, I'd bet money that he would ride the Hai Van Pass. The ride is legendary.
Here's a little footage of the pass, and some goats that were feeding next to the highway. This is actually part 5 of my videos from the pass. Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 are also available.
There appear to be farms and buildings along parts of the coast, but I never saw any obvious roads or paths to get to them.
This lady was, of course, very sweet. I had stopped at a little scenic rest stop area for photos and she wanted in on the action. I made the mistake of staying for coffee, and allowed myself to be talked into buying some jewelry. It was cheap and the bracelets came in handy as gifts later. But I definitely wasn't in the market for jewelry when I stopped.
In this photo you can see the railroad tracks that run along the coast. Months later I would take a train across half of Vietnam, unfortunately I never rode this part of the track. It looks stunning.
Going over the Hai Van pass is so enjoyable because the vast majority of traffic uses a tunnel to go under the mountain. The only trucks that you see on the pass are flammable liquid/gas trucks. This all changes here. At this point in the route, you're forced to ride Highway 1, with all of the other traffic.
There was a big fire when I rode through. You can see it in the distance. I would end up riding within a kilometer or two of the fire here.
There's something about all these boats that I love. Here's a short video of me riding up to take this photo.
ne of the things that I noticed in Vietnam is the relatively low instances of road rage. Traffic in Vietnam is a totally different experience than what I'm used to. The biggest factors are that you can talk to the other drivers on the road, and that your protective bubble is gone.
When we drive in cars, we are in a protected bubble. Any threats to our bubbles are generally met with anger and rage. We're the same when it comes to our homes and what we consider our turf. This is normal biological programming (in my opinion). So when you remove the bubble from driving, the instinct to fiercely defend your personal space dissipates.
When driving cars, if someone cuts me off, or makes me feel like I'm about to die, I usually respond with a lot of swear words, and insults. The other driver usually continues on their way, not even realizing that anything happened.
Things are a lot different when the other person is close enough to talk to. The "enemy" who tried to kill you with his car, is now just another person on a scooter that you can talk to. So instead of insults and swearing, I found myself more inclined to be more measured with my responses to other drivers. Once or twice, I yelled something like "Woah!" or "Come on man!" or "Holy Shit!" when a person almost killed me with their scooter. Usually the response would be a sheepish "my bad" shrug-wave. My anger would melt instantly.
The only road rage that I saw was with truck drivers yelling at each other.
With all that said, I think this truck driver was either road raging, drunk, or just an asshole.
When this happened, I was only focused on the wheels of the couple in front of me. I was trying to make sure my front wheel didn't overlap their back wheel. Then I saw the truck swing in and run them off the road. Now that I watch it on video, it looks like the truck driver did this on purpose. A longer version of this video can be found here.
fter some of the best riding of my trip, I encountered some of the worst riding of my trip. Highway 1 is the main thoroughfare in Vietnam. It's usually the fastest way to get from one city to the next. It's also usually the least enjoyable way to get from one city to the next.
Highway 1 is the highway that most trucks, buses, and cars use in Vietnam. The traffic is generally terrible. The road seems to be under construction everywhere, because of how much usage the road sees.
Day 11 was the first day that I rode on Highway 1. Even though you can make pretty good time on the highway, the rides are terrible. I spent a couple hours on Highway 1 and the only thing I can remember seeing is the vehicles in front of me. The highway is so busy and congested that you're forced to focus all of your attention and energy towards not getting killed. There's no attention left for soaking up the views and appreciating the scenery. And to be honest, the scenery on Highway 1 is mostly crap. Everyone moved next to the highway to start businesses, so there's not much to see except for tons of vendors and construction.
Here's a little bit of Highway 1. This is a calm section.
Here's some rice with a village in the background.
Crossing a river.
ventually, I left Highway 1 and made my way into Hue. Hue is the former imperial city of Vietnam, as well as the formal capital city of Vietnam. It is a walled city with a moat surrounding it.
Hue is a beautiful ancient city with a number of attractions for tourists to see. The city itself didn't appeal to me very much, but the surrounding area is worth a seeing. On this visit to Hue, I didn't explore very much. Later I would be stuck in Hue for 3 or 4 nights, and would do most of my exploring then.
Entering Hue via one of the city gates.
I found a hotel room outside of the city walls, across the river. It was a nice enough place with good restaurants close by. But it felt too much like a backpacker hangout to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a backpacker and love backpackers, but I didn't come to Vietnam to see backpackers.
There's a weird paradox when it comes to tourist attractions. Tourists want some tourist infrastructure and familiar food, but if things become too touristy the attractions lose their appeal. To me, Hue had passed the tipping point and was too touristy for my taste. At this point in my trip, I was wanting to go to places that would worry my mom, not make her want to join me. I wanted adventure, not luxury accommodations and safe field trips.
When I go to other countries, I want to try to force myself to fit into their world a little bit. I don't want the locals to try an shape their world to make it more palatable to westerners like me. To me, it's the difference between seeing what is, versus what some wants me to see.
Maybe when I'm old I'll go to all of the luxury places and take photos of all the shows and props. For now I'd rather be uncomfortable and have some interesting stories to tell.
And more stories I will tell. Until then, ride safe!
The view from my hotel.
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, 9.1 and 10 here.